PSW 2469 Back to the Moon to Stay | Denevi and Fuhrman

Lecture Starts at 17:08
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PSW #2469
December 16, 2022
Back to the Moon to Stay: Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium
Brett Denevi & Wesley Fuhrman
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
The Moon has been our partner in space for most of Earth’s history and holds a record of events spanning the past ~4.5 billion years. As the only other planetary body for which we have samples from a known geological context, the Moon has informed our understanding of the age of Earth, how planets form and evolve, and the impact flux that has shaped the Earth-Moon system. Yet despite its proximity, we have only barely begun our exploration of the Moon.
The Apollo era fueled 50 years of scientific studies and technological advances. It gave prominence to the field of planetary science, which allows us to appreciate the planets and asteroids as more than wandering points of light in the sky. As we move into the Artemis era, NASA and its international partners are working to build a long-term presence on the lunar surface that will yield extraordinary new science and be a proving ground for crewed missions beyond the Earth-Moon system.
Artemis base camp is expected to be at the lunar south pole, where ridges and crater rims provide long periods of low-angle sunlight. The abundant solar power here can enable extensive operations, including development of infrastructure and in-situ resource utilization engineering challenges far-afield from typical space exploration. Also within this region are craters with permanently shadowed regions, unexposed to the sun for billions of years and hovering at temperatures akin to the surface of Pluto. These dark, cold depths hold the promise of water ice, rich with science and a key re-source that can advance sustainment and exploration.
In this talk, we will cover the highest-priority science questions and the technologies that drive our exploration in the modern era of lunar discovery.
Brett Denevi
Brett Denevi is principal staff scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Concurrently, she is Deputy Principal Investigator of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera, Co-Investigator on NASA’s ShadowCam instrument on the South Korea’s KARI Danuri orbiter, and Co-Investigator on the up-coming Lunar Vertex and Lunar-VISE missions, scheduled to land on the Moon in 2024 and 2026, respectively.
Previously, Brett served on the steering group of the recent National Academies Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey, as Vice Chair for the Panel on the Moon and Mercury, and as the Science Chair of NASA’s Lunar Exploration Analysis Group.
Brett’s research focuses on the origin and evolution of planetary surfaces, particularly the volcanism, the effects of impact cratering, and space weathering.
Brett is an author on more than 90 technical papers on her work.
Among other honors and awards, she is the recipient of a NASA Early Career Fellowship and seven NASA group achievement awards. Asteroid 9026 Denevi is named in her honor.
Brett earned a BA in Geological Sciences at Northwestern University and a PhD in Geology and Geophysics at the University of Hawaii.
Wesley Fuhrman
Wesley Fuhrman is the lead for the Lunar Surface Innovation Initiative at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, a NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate initiative.
Wesley’s work at APL involves lunar and cislunar space, hypervelocity impact sensing and modeling, and advanced materials. His physics research focuses on condensed matter physics, in particular spectroscopy and theory of topological quantum materials; theory of strongly correlated materials; bulk crystal growth, characterization and analysis; and device fabrication on lab-grown single crystals.
Wesley is an author on several dozen technical publications on his work. Among other honors and awards Wesley was a Schmidt Fellow, prior to joining JHUAPL in his present capacity.
Wesley earned a BS in Physics at UC-Irvine and a PhD in Physics at The Johns Hopkins University.
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Wonderful lecture. It is however pronounced 'Tea Coe' not 'Tie Coe'. The Danes straightened out my friends out on this matter!